Flashback
I remember, way back when...
i was a 15 year old kid just turned on to punk rock in the east bay, awkward, just finding identities (many), but already mountain biking as much as i could. and my bike broke. i ripped the derailleur hanger off. along with the piece of crap suntour mech. no, at the time all i could think about was upgrading to DEORE XT the gift from the japanese cycling gods but fate and a lack of money (ANY money, at all) drove me to it. single speed.
so i went to my next race, it was in angwin and i forget if it was called the rumpstomper still or maybe it was the sanitized Napa Valley Dirt Classic. same thing. and i signed up for the juniors still, and i said to hell with gears i'm gonna rip anyway. i didn't even know there was a SS class, i did know there were some loud dudes who rode SS bikes but they were charging pretty hard too, man they rode fast. mass start, all at once, rode hard chasing James Lillard (a geared rider) all day and he finally got away on the final decent. ended up second. but evidently smoked the first SS fider by 6 minutes of something. and Ferrentino comes over in a huff and starts pointing fingers at me about what the F*** and sliding in snide comments and i had no idea at the time but that was mike's way of saying good job. and man, was i hooked.
fast forward a few years, i'm still dirt poor, bumming rides to races with guys who know i can't pay and if i promise money i don't/can't come through. and i hook up with the Ventana boys and norm and leroy, and ferrentino and richter are still out there somewhere, and i got a cool shiny SS bike and i'm racing and being about as serious as i can be, which means going to the underground races and skipping Mammoth entirely. i was just having fun. and there's these dudes on the scene who start wearing orange jump suits and calling themselves the 3 amigos and it's rob and scott from Ventana and this punk called steve. they were not fast. they really didn't race, unless it was to see who could finish their beer fastest. they were good at that.
Steve's still in action and he's been reminding me of the good old days, so i thought i'd share.
man, i think i'm getting old.
i was a 15 year old kid just turned on to punk rock in the east bay, awkward, just finding identities (many), but already mountain biking as much as i could. and my bike broke. i ripped the derailleur hanger off. along with the piece of crap suntour mech. no, at the time all i could think about was upgrading to DEORE XT the gift from the japanese cycling gods but fate and a lack of money (ANY money, at all) drove me to it. single speed.
so i went to my next race, it was in angwin and i forget if it was called the rumpstomper still or maybe it was the sanitized Napa Valley Dirt Classic. same thing. and i signed up for the juniors still, and i said to hell with gears i'm gonna rip anyway. i didn't even know there was a SS class, i did know there were some loud dudes who rode SS bikes but they were charging pretty hard too, man they rode fast. mass start, all at once, rode hard chasing James Lillard (a geared rider) all day and he finally got away on the final decent. ended up second. but evidently smoked the first SS fider by 6 minutes of something. and Ferrentino comes over in a huff and starts pointing fingers at me about what the F*** and sliding in snide comments and i had no idea at the time but that was mike's way of saying good job. and man, was i hooked.
fast forward a few years, i'm still dirt poor, bumming rides to races with guys who know i can't pay and if i promise money i don't/can't come through. and i hook up with the Ventana boys and norm and leroy, and ferrentino and richter are still out there somewhere, and i got a cool shiny SS bike and i'm racing and being about as serious as i can be, which means going to the underground races and skipping Mammoth entirely. i was just having fun. and there's these dudes on the scene who start wearing orange jump suits and calling themselves the 3 amigos and it's rob and scott from Ventana and this punk called steve. they were not fast. they really didn't race, unless it was to see who could finish their beer fastest. they were good at that.
Steve's still in action and he's been reminding me of the good old days, so i thought i'd share.
man, i think i'm getting old.
4 Comments:
great post.. I'll never forget my 1st couple of sea otter's seein' those orange jump suit dudes screamin' down the Chute that they used to put at the end of that race.. (on kid's bikes even?)
... who knew 10 years later someone would clue me in as to who they were. thx.
It was the Napa Valley Dirt Classic, which started and finished at a high school track, and a bunch of people got lost in the woods because one of the markers was crappy. I think.
and now i feel old, too.
I remember going to the Ventana "plant" up in lovely Sack of potatoes and meeting the infamous Mr. Ives. And seeing those guys at the NVDC. Good times. Thanks for the memories.
More singlespeed in 2007!!!
yah.. old,tired, aching, and fat, I am back on a single speed.
So keep to your geared bike for a few more years please or I will really start feeling older!!
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